![]() © The Tate Gallery and Photographic Rights © Tate (2017), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported), Benjamin West (1738–1820), St Paul Shaking off the Viper (sketch) (1786), oil on canvas, 129.5 x 72.4 cm, The Tate Gallery (Presented by the Art Fund 1945), London. He was hardly an undiscovered hero of British history, and there were undoubtedly some who would have thought that Colin Fitzgerald could have spared his bravery on this occasion. There is another snag, this time with his choice of subject: Alexander III was hardly well-known, and those who went off to read up about him were likely to discover that he used great cunning to gain the Isle of Man and the Western Isles from the Norse (‘Vikings’), in the Treaty of Perth of 1266. However, had West studied the solutions used by previous painters in the likes of the Calydonian Boar Hunt, he might have achieved greater success. It’s not a straightforward motif, which might have stretched the supreme compositional abilities of Rubens. In one of his most dynamic compositions, West draws the viewer’s gaze not to the figure of the prostrate king, whose life is in imminent danger, but to that of the hero of the day, Colin Fitzgerald, with his spear raised ready to kill the stag. This shows a story from the life of this King of the Scots, who lived from 1249-1286. The closest West came to ‘modern history’ during the 1780s is this huge canvas showing Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin Fitzgerald, but more popularly known as The Death of the Stag (1786). Benjamin West (1738–1820), Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin Fitzgerald (‘The Death of the Stag’) (1786), oil on canvas, 366 x 521 cm, The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. This beautiful watercolour study of Fidelia and Speranza is dated to 1784, although it seems to have been a study for his earlier oil painting of Fidelia and Speranza (shown in the previous article) which is dated to 1776. He appears to have been skilled in watercolour as well as oils, but strongly preferred the latter for his finished works. Courtesy of Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum. Benjamin West (1738–1820), Fidelia and Speranza (1784), watercolor and brown ink on cream laid paper, 53 x 40.3 cm, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum (Bequest of Grenville L. In avoiding a more formal composition, West loses the cohesion of the motif, and in so doing fails to convey its profound importance to the Christian faith. West tried The Last Supper in 1784, which appears to be one of his disappointing paintings, certainly in comparison with those of many of the great Masters who had preceded him. ![]() ![]() Benjamin West (1738–1820), The Last Supper (1784), oil on canvas, 183 x 275.7 cm, The Tate Gallery (Presented by King George IV 1828), London. The Burghers of Calais (1789), in 1346.Īmazingly, West didn’t complete another ‘modern history’ painting until 1806, nearly thirty years after The Death of Chatham.Queen Philippa at the Battle of Neville’s Cross (1789), in 1346.Edward, the Black Prince, Receiving King John after the Battle of Poitiers (1788), in 1356.Edward III with the Black Prince after the Battle of Crécy (1788), in 1346.Edward III Entertaining his Prisoners (1788), in 1346.Edward III Crossing the Somme (1788), in 1346.The Institution of the Order of the Garter (1787), in 1348.Saint George Slaying the Dragon (1787), ancient legend.The Death of Epaminondas (1773), ancient Greece. ![]() The Family of the King of Armenia Before Cyrus (1773), in c 540 BCE.The Wife of Arminius Brought Captive to Germanicus (1773), classical Rome.The Death of Chevalier Bayard (1772), which occurred in 1524.The Oath of Hannibal (1770), classical Rome.The Departure of Regulus (1769), classical Rome.These remain in the UK Royal Collection, and include: The themes of his history paintings for the king were hardly modern either. But his attempt to improve on his modern history paintings, with The Death of Chatham in 1778, had been upstaged by his former protegé John Singleton Copley. His appointment as painter to King George III brought him a reliable income, for which he made a succession of more than a dozen history paintings. Following his success with The Death of General Wolfe in 1770, the American painter of modern history Benjamin West (1738–1820) enjoyed mixed fortunes over the next decade.
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